Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is hugely important that we in this House collectively put our heads together and work to bring about an all-party, cross-community response to the recent flag protests in the North and the violence that is accompanying them. We know from the recent census figures that Belfast is a changed city and is no longer dominated by Unionism. The issue of flags and symbols in City Hall is a sensitive one but that does not mean it should be ignored or put aside. The city needs to be representative of the people of all traditions who live there and not simply Unionism.

The recent controversy of the flying of flags over City Hall can be traced back as far as 2004 and the issue has arisen through a variety of equality tests, legal advice and council committees. Belfast city is a shared workplace and those who represent that city have to reflect that and give cognisance to it. Under equality legislation in the North and in the interest of creating a good and harmonious working environment, it is important to ensure employees and those who use City Hall have their cultural and political identities respected and are not made feel unwelcome. That is a primary role for elected representatives in that area.

A proposal was placed before a council to remove the Union Jack from Belfast City Hall totally but it was not accepted by the Alliance Party and a compromise position of only flying the flag on designated days was democratically passed by the council in accordance with the equality legislation. Many people are confused not only in this country but in Britain and elsewhere as they cannot understand what is happening.

The DUP and the UUP cynically tried to use the issue in a bid to undermine the position of Naomi Long as MP for east Belfast and distributed 40,000 leaflets. Many parties were supposedly opposed to the flying of the flag on designated days - in the past the DUP, the UUP and the PUP all voted in favour of the flying of the flag on designated days. What is happening in regard to this?

One of the positives is that nobody has been killed so far. We have been lucky that nobody has been killed. Also, they are not getting large numbers on the protests. Again, that is a positive. People are asking what exactly is happening and how did this come about. In the Tánaiste's view, is this about criminality? Is it about court cases coming down the line - supergrass court cases? Is it about the number two in the UVF in east Belfast facing drug charges at the moment?

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